Volume 3, 3 - Wisebrain.org

The Wise Brain Bulletin
News and Tools for Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
Volume 3, 3 (3/31/09 )
Featured Article:
Spinning On Uncertain Ground
(Or, some thoughts around creative connectedness
amidst our uncertain economic climate)
© by Sophia Isajiw and Lisa Kaftori
“Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his or her world.”
~ Rollo May
A
young girl spins happily in the sand on the
shore of the Pacific Ocean, her little being
transformed into a joy energy vortex.
On the other side of the world, a Sufi dervish
whirls passionately into the velvet darkness of
night, white skirt twirling, one hand reaching
gracefully toward heaven, the other pointing
confidently toward touchstone earth. The dervish
spins as if compelling the universe to continue
turning; his ritual dance, a powerful prayer of
praise and gratitude, seems bent simultaneously on
transcendence and equilibrium.
Young Girl Spinning
Video stills from Spinning On Uncertain Ground © Isajiw & Kaftori
Why do children spin and dervishes whirl? Why
does a perfect pirouette take our breath away?
continued on page 2...
Also in this issue:
Words of Wisdom:
Power of Intention
by Rick Hanson, PhD.
p. 6
Modern Science &
Ancient Wisdom
p. 11
continued from page 1...
Why do we feel an irresistible urge to spin when
we’re joyful? Is there a neurological connection to
this physical activity that somehow approaches the
sublime?
Children, in their inherent wisdom, love to
somersault and swing, or to spin and twirl
on merry-go-rounds. Studies show that there
are many significant connections between the
cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for
motor development, and the upper regions of
the brain that control attention, focus, reason and
logic – in other words, the regions that produce
significant thinking. According to Joan LessenFirestone1, physical activities like spinning around,
playing on carousels, teeter-totters and swings
encourage important early brain development
via the inner ear and its vestibular system—the
sensory mechanism in the inner ear that detects
movement of the head and helps to control
balance. Children growing up without this regular
movement experience weaker connections and
their thinking processes and ability to focus suffer.
Spinning into Connection
Because spinning relies on vestibular stimulation,
our neurological responses allow us to experience
a feeling of limitless connection both within and
without the self as a result.
Greetings
The Wise Brain Bulletin offers skillful means from
brain science and contemplative practice—to nurture
your brain for the benefit of yourself and everyone
you touch.
The Bulletin is offered freely, and you are welcome to
share it with others. Past issues are archived at
www.WiseBrain.org.
Rick Hanson, PhD and Richard Mendius, MD edit
the Bulletin, and it’s designed and laid out by
Brad Reynolds at [email protected].
To subscribe, please contact Rick at [email protected].
Like a dervish, the child spinning on the beach may
whirl because she experiences fully open awareness
of our limitless connection to everything in the
universe, or an ‘absolute unity of being’ to use an
older term from philosophy.
The term “dervish” itself literally means
“doorway” and is thought to be an entrance from
the material world into the spiritual world. The
Sufi spinning ceremony is a progression: from
self-transformation as a union with God, to the
death of the ego, and a return to life as a servant
of all creation. The right hand of the dervish
opens to the skies in prayer, ready to receive divine
beneficence, and the left hand is turned towards
the earth in a gesture of bestowal, the dervish
becoming a point of contact through which divine
blessings can flow to earth.2
David O’Reilly, in his article The Bliss Machine3
explains the neurological studies of such religious
rituals as follows:
According to D’Aquili and Newberg, religious
rituals and practices stimulate the two major
subsystems of the autonomic systems. The
ergotropic system is the body’s fight-orflight nervous system. In moments of stress,
it raises the heart rate, blood pressure and
respiration, and hastens endocrine to the
muscles, among other activities. The other
system, the trophotropic, can be understood as
the system of calm. It reduces the heart rate,
slows respiration, and regulates cell growth,
digestion, relaxation and sleep.
D’Aquili and Newberg propose that certain
religious practices can so stimulate the body’s
calm system or its flight system that activity in
the related brain circuit starts to ‘reverberate,’
while simultaneously shutting down ever more
of the other system. Depending on whether
the ritual is fast (as in the spinning dance of
Sufi whirling dervishes) or slow, as in Zen
meditation, different parts of the brain are
activated, perceived by the mind as a higher
state of consciousness.
In states of very high activity around one
circuit, they say, there can be a ‘spillover,’ such
continued on next page...
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 2
that the dormant system activates and goes ‘on
line’ simultaneously with the other. Although
rare, this dual state can lead to a sense of
‘tremendous release of energy’ that may
feel like ‘oceanic bliss’ or absorption into the
object of contemplation. And extreme cases
of both systems being activated can induce
brain activities perceived by the mind as the
‘Absolute Unity of Being.’
And he goes on to state that a mystic in this state
will experience either a divine being (God) or
a cosmic void (nirvana). Dervishes believe and
acknowledge that everything in the universe is
spinning in this energy.
In Sanskrit, the word “chakra” translates to
mean “wheel of spinning light.” The seven body
chakras are believed to be spinning vortices of
energy in our bodies that connect us physically,
emotionally, and spiritually to a universal field
of energy. The speed of the chakra spin is a key
to vibrant health according to the Five Tibetan
Rites of Rejuvenation.4 The Five Rites speed up
the spinning of the chakras, coordinate their spin
so they are in complete harmony, distribute pure
prana energy to the endocrine system and to all
organs and processes in the body.
We know from science that all things in the
universe are in a constant state of spinning:
subatomic particles, solar systems, and even the
Milky Way galaxy. The particles in our bodies, and
those around them, spin. The universe manifests
energy in a spiral, and so as we spin, we harmonize
with the core of this universal energy. Spinning
can thus change one’s mood on the mental,
physical, psychological and spiritual levels.
Spinning On Uncertain Ground, site-specific, multimedia installation © Isajiw & Kaftori
Installation details: trough of earth with 12 footprints, lachrymatories, cloth panel embroidered with text: gather your
tears into my bottle, viewer sitting on milking stool, listening to audio, video projection of woman spinning on beach,
poetic fortune “leaves”…
E
Spinning Creatively
ight years ago, we collaborated to create
a multimedia art installation entitled:
Spinning On Uncertain Ground, which
was very much about how opposites can be held
together on their continuums through spinning, a
seemingly unbalanced activity that requires great
balance to maintain. Among elements in the larger
whole of this installation were two videos. The
first, a video projection of a little girl in a white
dress spinning on a beach, in front of ocean waves.
continued on next page...
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 3
The video is bleached slightly of its color and
the timing is slowed. Viewers watch her spinning
gracefully, then losing balance, then finding her
center again. The other was of a mature woman
spinning slowly and gracefully, over and over, a
dancer on a beach. This video is also bleached of
its colors and slowed, so that the woman seems
like she may be from another time, another world,
another space, perhaps a divinity or a daemon. Her
spins are more controlled, more consciously aware.
Central to Spinning On Uncertain Ground was
an exploration of the journey to individual
and collective joy, especially during times of
uncertainty. The exhibition focused on our innate
ability to spin away burdens, doctrines, and
circumstances that separate us from each other
and from nature, in order to find spiritual and
emotional middle paths, to fully connect. Spinning
On Uncertain Ground used the metaphor of
spinning to posit the idea that coming together to
spin the significant narratives of our historic and
contemporary burdens creates the understanding
and the expansiveness necessary for shifts of
awareness and new perceptions of self and the
world to form. In Spinning On Uncertain Ground
individuals and communities were encouraged to
spin literally and metaphorically in order to find
equilibrium and well being during tentative times.
The innocent joyful spinning of a young girl, the
hyperconscious state of dervish dancers whirling
around their physical access, and the compassion
and spaciousness of individuals and communities
who transcend differences by coming together
to witness one another’s cultural narratives, all
experience spinning as an active meditation that
centers the mind and the body and heightens
conscious awareness.
In terms of neurology, the movement embodied
by physical, psychological and metaphoric acts of
spinning and other forms of meditation reward
us emotionally, physiologically, and spiritually.
Neuroscientists such as Mark Waldman and Dr.
Andrew Newberg have shown that meditation,
prayer and spiritual practices alter the brain to
improve memory and reduce anxiety, depression
and anger.5
To spin well you have to become very centered and
connected. Thus chaos and control are united – by
grounding, by centering, by being in the present
moment, by consciousness. Spinning is a form of
active meditation that, within a few short minutes,
helps center the body and mind and creates a
connection between inner self and outer world.
A secret turning in us makes the universe turn. Head
unaware of feet, and feet head. Neither cares. They
keep turning. ~ Rumi
Spinning On Uncertain Ground, site-specific, multimedia installation © Isajiw & Kaftori
Installation details: electronic fortune cookie, lachrymatories with pearls, cloth panel embroidered with text:
gather your tears into my bottle. Our invisible longings and desires exist inside the visible…
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 4
Spinning On Uncertain Ground
Acknowledgements:
The site-specific multimedia installation, Spinning On Uncertain Ground, was created by Sophia Isajiw and Lisa Kaftori,
in collaboration, for the University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus, in 2000. Lisa and Sophia wish to
thank Aiyana Sky Powell for spinning in, “Young Girl Spinning.” Special thanks to filmmaker Robin Bisio and to dancer
Cybil Gilbertson for 30 beautiful seconds from the film “Reign of Dreams.”
Endnotes:
1. www.mi-aimh.msu.edu/publications/JoanFirestone.pdf
2. http://www.lesartsturcs.com/lessons/whirling_dervish.php
3. David O’Reilly, “The Bliss Machine,” Science and Religion, (Science Saturday February 28, 1998)
http://scienceandreligion.com/b_myst_1.html
4. for an in-depth discussion on The Five Tibetan Rites see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Tibetan_Rites
5. http://www.wildmind.org/tag/neuroscience
Author’s Bios
Lisa Kaftori, M.F.A.,
is an internationally
exhibited, award-winning
conceptual artist, and
social sculptor. She
creates site-specific
installation, performance
and ecological art,
based on extensive
© Dorrie Powell
interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
Lisa has lectured and performed at the National
Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict
Resolution and at universities and symposia
around the world. She is co-founder, with
artist Joan Giroux, of Compassionate Action
Enterprises, an artist collaborative that promotes
art geared toward social, political, environmental
and cultural activism.
Lisa is a dedicated TM and Raja yoga practioner.
Originally from Southern California, she currently
lives in Israel.
Sophia Isajiw, M.F.A.,
is an award-winning
interdisciplinary visual
artist whose work and
research emphasize
interconnective
installations and social
action performances.
She is the Founder of the Velvet Antler Studio
for Print Media at the international Banff Centre
for the Arts, an art gallery Director, Curator,
arts writer, Public Arts Commissioner, Assistant
Professor of Fine Art, and accomplished Reiki
practitioner.
She has taught at the California Insitute of
the Arts, the California State University, the
University of Toronto, the University of Windsor
and has lectured across Canada and the US. You
can learn more about her work at: www.ccca.ca or
http://www.artreview.com/profile/SophiaIsajiw
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 5
The Power of Intention
© By Rick Hanson, Ph.D., 2009
Every day, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to have woken up.
I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. ~ The Dalai Lama
T
o make the most of your life, to nourish
the causes of happiness for yourself and
others, it takes strength, clear intentions,
and persistent effort. This essay explores how
to establish powerful intentions and sustain the
commitment to see them come true.
Setting Clear Intentions
A
s humans evolved, stacking one floor above
another on the neuroaxis in the brain,
our horizons expanded. We gradually
extended the time between stimulus and response,
and the space between our own actions and their
outermost ripples. The wider your view, the wiser
your intentions. So it’s good to ask yourself: How
wide is my view? It’s natural to spend most of your
time focusing on what’s right in front of you, but
every so often it’s worth considering questions like
these:
• What good and bad effects will my lifestyle
today have on me 20 years from now?
• What do I do that helps and harms my
planet?
• How do my love and my anger affect others?
• What could be the long-term results of
intensifying my psychological growth and
spiritual practices?
And how high is your aim? One time at Spirit
Rock Meditation Center, my spiritual “home
base,” my friend and teacher, Sylvia Boorstein,
silenced a room full of several hundred people
when she asked a simple question: What about
enlightenment? She went on to point out that
the Buddha, like all the great teachers, always
encouraged people toward the most complete
Spirit Rock, Woodacre, CA
realization possible. Whether or not you connect with the notion of enlightenment or related
ideas like union with God, each one of us has a
sense deep down of the ultimate possibilities of
a human life. If you haven’t taken those possibilities seriously and gone after them, why not start
now? Is there truly a good reason not to?
Personally, I’ve never heard a good reason. But
like just about everyone, I keep forgetting this
and losing my way in the sheer busyness of
life. Further, the lower floors of the neuroaxis
naturally pull us toward aims that are immediate
and concrete—not because the brainstem, hypothalamus, and limbic system are base or sinful,
but simply because they are more primitive in an
evolutionary sense. Then your horizons shrink
to the next few months and the small circle
around you.
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 6
M
Skillful Intending
uch as you can see farther from an
upstairs window, the uppermost layer
of your brain is key to creating and
pursuing the widest, highest, and wisest aims.
So in this article I’ll emphasize emphasize using
the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate
cortex (ACC) to do just that, starting with these
general considerations about how to be skillful at
intending.
Seeing Clearly
Intentions are effective when they are grounded
in reality, in what is really true. Here are some
things that will help:
• Cultivate wanting to know the facts of your
inner and outer worlds. Take in the rewards
of seeing clearly, like feeling safer.
• Slow down. Give your cortex time to understand what is actually happening, what led
up to it, and what an appropriate response
would be.
• Stay mindful of the big picture. In the larger
mosaic of a situation, notice if you’re focusing on one tile out of a hundred.
• Pay attention to intention itself. It determines the full consequences of your
thoughts, words, and deeds.
Non-harming
This is a central principle in ethics, morality,
and virtue. Fundamentally, it’s enlightened selfinterest. Since we’re all connected together, not
harming others decreases the harms that would
come back to hurt you. Similarly, not harming
yourself reduces harms to others.
Do’s and Don’t’s
Intentions can be positive (do) or negative
(don’t). Positive statements are more informative,
because they spotlight the bullseye rather than
just tell you what to avoid hitting. But negative
statements are more powerful, since they draw
on the intense, “lower floor” withdrawal and
freeze circuitry of the brain. That’s why they’re
used so often.
For your own intentions, it’s natural to use both
forms. The positive one breathes inspiration and
life into moral conduct; for example, “be generous” is a joyful balance to “do not steal.” And
sometimes it’s necessary to have a very clear NO
sign in front of certain actions, like being very
clear that you just never lie to your mate, no
matter what.
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
~ John Maynard Keynes
• Notice how limbic and brainstem processes
tilt cortical ones, and vice versa. For example, the brain uses feedback from “in here”—
particularly your autonomic nervous system,
muscles, heart, and gut—to form beliefs that
are often mistaken about what is happening
“out there.” Or see how an anxious temperament inflates threats, or a glum mood downplays opportunities. Use this awareness to
challenge your appraisals and judgments: is
a situation truly a 7 on the zero-to-ten Ugh
scale, or more like a 2? As Oscar Wilde once
wrote: The worst things in my life never
actually happened to me.
T he View from the Porch
N
ow, to expand the horizons of your
intentions, here’s one of my all-time
favorite exercises.
Relax, and take a few breaths. Settle as deeply as
you can into a feeling of calm and well-being.
Imagine that you are sitting comfortably somewhere many years from now. Your health and
your mind are intact. You are in your 90’s or
older, toward the end of your lifespan, sitting
on a porch in a comfortable chair, with a beautiful view down a long valley below. There may be
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 7
other people around, or maybe not, however you
like.
Sitting there in your chair, you feel really good,
really contented. Then you start reflecting back
upon the life you’ve had, from the vantage point
of a comfortable old age.
detail. By visualizing a future and then turning
around to look back at the past – some of which
is actually still to come for you!—the exercise
tricks and dislocates the brain’s time traveling
functions, sometimes jarring open a fresh clarity
about those things that matter most.
Looking back from the porch, what are you
happy about? Consider different parts of your
life, such as friends and family, work and career,
good times and bad, personal and spiritual development, creativity, health, self-expression, and
service.
Keep restoring the perspective of looking back
from the porch, from a comfortable old age.
What are some of the things you feel grateful
for?
What has been really important in your life?
What are you glad that you stood for?
What do you wish you had done differently?
What have been the central guiding values and
principles of your life?
What qualities or aspects of your life make you
glad that you have lived, and at peace with your
life ending some day?
Looking back, what would you say to a younger
version of yourself ? Such as the age you are
today.
Take a few moments to let all this sink in. You
might like to write down some of your reflections.
*
*
*
A simple exercise, but for most people, quite
a powerful one. Humans have a unique ability
to do mental time travel, to use the simulation
capabilities of the prefrontal cortex to visit
the lived past and the imagined future in vivid
Identify Your Purposes in Life
L
ooking back from “the porch,” can you
see any overarching purposes that sum
up the things that are most important to
you in this life? Perhaps love, or joy, or discovery,
or service, or spiritual realization. Or? Is there
one fundamental purpose in your life that is your
highest and best aim, your guiding star?
Explicit, consciously held life purposes are a
useful corrective to your brain’s tendency to scan
continually for opportunities and threats. That
keeps drawing your attention and actions toward
short-term and local possibilities, thus narrowing your horizons. And because it is rooted in
the lower floors of the neuroaxis, the carrots
and sticks it identifies are usually simple, even
primal.
So, to keep your eyes on the big prize, how about
writing down your life purpose(s)? This could
seem daunting, but you can change it later. Pushing yourself to get something down on paper,
even if it’s not exactly right, can break any
logjams. Go for it! What will bring the highest
happiness, the greatest peace to your life?
Try on the feeling of different words. Find ones
that evoke an experience of the state of being you
want as the basis of your life. Positive, presenttense language works best. For example, instead
of I will find love, how about There is love in my
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 8
life or I am love. The positive words stimulate
the approach networks of your brain, compensating for their relative weakness compared to
the survival-focused avoidance circuitry. And
regarding your purpose as a present reality tells
your brain that this is the new normal, rather
than something implicitly always out there in the
distance—out of reach.
Find imagery as well for your purposes, such
as collages made out of pictures and headlines,
from magazines, that are combined however you
like, neatly or slap dash. You can make a collage
on notepaper, but I find it’s more fun to use a
2’ x 3’ posterboard. In my office at home, three
collages hang on the wall, and when I glance at
them, they touch my heart and nudge my mind
in the right direction. You could also just find a
single picture that says everything to you and
keep it where you can see it every day, like in
your appointment book or on your car’s dashboard.
As your purposes clarify, try to feel them in your
body, and imagine them sinking down the neuroaxis, becoming increasingly embedded at deeper and deeper levels. Bring them to mind from
time to time, and see how that changes your day.
Perhaps weave a regular renewal of commitment
to your life’s purposes into your meditation or
other spiritual practices. Purpose is effective if
it is felt, kept in awareness, and taken seriously:
holding it in front of your mind like a rider
holding a carrot in front of a horse.
Clarify Your Major Priorities
Y
our fundamental purposes in life are
supported by major priorities, which are
fulfilled through specific commitments (see
just below). When your purposes, priorities, and
commitments all line up together toward positive
ends, that creates a virtuous, effective, and happy
life.
To clarify your true priorities, write a list of the
major areas of your life. Like Health, Spirituality,
Love, Pleasure, Marriage, Childrearing, Career,
Creative Expression, and Finances. Create categories that mean something to you, and you can
have as many as you like.
Next, consider how important each area or aim
is to you. Bring to mind the view from the porch,
looking back from old age: what will you want
your priorities to have been? Open up to the
longings in your heart: what are they saying to
you?
Then, make a new list of the major areas or aims
of your life, this time in order of greatest priority. Number them, with #1 being the most important. Sorry, no ties are allowed! Ask yourself: If I
could have just one of those priorities fulfilled, which
would it be? Then take that one off the list, and
repeat the question with the remaining priorities,
and so on.
When you have your numbered priority list,
ask yourself if you are being true to it. Are you
allocating resources such as time and attention
consistent with your real priorities? Most of us
put a lot of effort into things that don’t actually
have much pay-off while giving short shrift to
things that do. As you reflect, it’s common to feel
some discomfort, and if that’s the case, use it to
motivate yourself to live truer to your priorities.
You’re drawing on cortical capabilities—especially those mediated by the anterior cingulate
(ACC)—to resolve conflicts among priorities
and get all levels of the neuroaxis pointed in the
same direction.
What would a typical day be like if you really lived according to your highest priorities?
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 9
Whenever you think about living that way, pay
attention to the rewards you’d experience and let
them sink in, gradually inclining your brain and
your mind toward them.
Living in greater alignment with your highest
priorities probably means a few small but significant changes. What could you do, realistically,
starting today to live more in that way? And
how could you start nudging your life so that a
year from now, it is as congruent as possible with
your most heartfelt priorities?
Make Specific Commitments
N
ow let’s translate your purposes and
priorities into specific commitments. (You
could also regard these as agreements
with yourself or precepts.) The lower levels of
the neuroaxis don’t process abstractions, so giving
them concrete instructions mobilizes them most
effectively.
Get a piece of paper and put the #1 priority area
of your life at the top of it as a heading. Then
list specific do’s and don’t’s beneath it that will
nourish it for real, bringing benefits that are
both immediate and grow over time. For example, if your top priority is loving relationships,
you could consider committing to things like:
Never speak or act out of anger with my children
Say at least one kind thing each day to my partner
Don’t let Bob/Mary/whoever get to me
Have friends over for dinner once a month
Include a compassion practice my daily meditation
Each of these moves you toward a priority and is
a natural expression of that priority; each one is
both a means to an end and an end in itself. Start
by regarding the do’s and don’t’s as tentative, up
for consideration (pencil is good for this), but by
the end, make a genuine commitment to what-
ever remains on your list. Then repeat this for
each of the other priorities, going through them
in order (so the next one is #2). Keep imagining
what your life would be like if you actually did
what was on your list, focusing on the rewards
that would come—happiness, a clear conscience,
a peaceful marriage, progress toward important
ambitions, spiritual growth—and soaking them
in.
Notice any resistance to pinning yourself down.
While it’s certainly true that you will pursue
your intentions in many ways outside of these
commitments, it’s also very useful to tap the executive, conflict-resolving powers of the cortex
to direct the bustling brain and thus regulate
the unruly mind. Also, to borrow a theme from
Buddhism, think of these commitments not as
commandments it would be a sin to violate but
as “trainings” you undertake to purify your mind
and heart. They’re skillful means, not edicts from
on high. Take your commitments seriously, but
don’t get so worried about breaching them that
you don’t make them in the first place. A little
wiggle room encourages conscientiousness.
When you’re done, look over your lists. Get a
sense of the benefits to you and others of actually living your life this way. Have the experience
of those benefits sink in.
Recall the view from the porch, and imagine that
you—as that older, future you—are reflecting
on what happened in your life when you started
living each day according to the lists you just
made. Looking backwards from that future point
in time, imagine how your life changed for the
better, including in specific areas, such as your
career, family, health, or spirituality.
Then see if you are willing to commit to this
plan for your life in a serious, real way. If not, so
be it, but if yes, GREAT.
Perspectives on Self-Care
Be careful with all self-help methods (including those presented in this Bulletin), which are no substitute
for working with a licensed healthcare practitioner. People vary, and what works for someone else may
not be a good fit for you. When you try something, start slowly and carefully, and stop immediately if it
feels bad or makes things worse.
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 10
Wo r d s o f W i s d o m
Modern Science and Ancient Wisdom
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as
though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle.
~ Albert Einstein
Great questioning, great enlightenment; little
questioning, little enlightenment; no questioning, no
enlightenment.
~ Dogen
That empirical attitude is embedded within Buddhism
just as it is within science. A famous word that the
Buddha used of the dharma was ehipassiko, sometimes
translated as “come and see for yourself ”—inviting
one’s own inspection. This is really the message of
science, also.
~ Guy Armstrong
If there is any religion that would cope with modern
scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.
~ Albert Einstein
Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the
beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or
weary of life.
~ Rachel Carson
If there is no stillness, there is no silence.
If there is no silence, there is no insight.
If there is no insight, there is no clarity.
Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi
Logic takes you from A to B. Imagination takes you
everywhere.
~ Albert Einstein
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do
Positive emotions are worth cultivating, not just as end
you do, sir?
states in themselves but also as a means to achieving
~ John Maynard Keynes psychological growth and improved well-being over
time.
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be
~ Barbara L. Frederickson
understood.
~ Marie Curie My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but
just to enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.
The history of science is rich in the example of the
~ Thornton Wilder
fruitfulness of bringing two sets of techniques, two
sets of ideas, developed in separate contexts for the
pursuit of new truth, into touch with one another.
~ J. Robert Oppenheimer
San Rafael Meditation Group
Open to beginners and experienced practitioners, we meet on Wednesday evenings at the A Sante day
spa in downtown San Rafael at the corner of Brooks and 3rd. “Early-bird” meditation starts at 6:45
with formal instruction at 7:00; meditation ends at 7:30, followed by a brief break, and then a dharma
talk and discussion, ending at 8:30. It is led by Rick Hanson, and for more information, check out
www.WiseBrain.org/sanrefaelmeditation.html. Newcomers are always welcome!
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 11
Offerings
Rick Hanson, PhD, and Rick Mendius, MD
1. Sounds True offers Meditations for Happiness by Rick Hanson, Ph.D. It’s 3 CD’s worth of talks and brainsavvy exercises for increasing your happiness, with an emphasis on experiential practices and practical tools.
It is offered as an inexpensive download to your computer, where you can listen to it or burn it to CD’s or
transfer it to an iPod.
This program truly turned out to be pretty great, and here’s a comment about it from the author, Annie
Spiegelman:
On his new “Meditations for Happiness” program, benevolent Rick Hanson guides me to sit down and face my inner
critic – and then actually see it as a form and shrink it. Being a Master Gardener, I see the critic as a gnome who tiptoes
into my brain when no one is looking, with those tiny pointy shoes, and makes me doubt myself. I shrink him down to the
size of a snail and toss him out. He knows nothing. The shoes are a dead giveaway.
Here’s the link to this program at Sounds True: http://shop.soundstrue.com/shop.soundstrue.com/
SelectProd.do;jsessionid=AA644B8B2BA5A2526E297913DE0434AD?prodId=1715&manufacturer=Sound
s%20True&category=Exploring%20the%20Psyche&name=Meditations%20for%20Happiness
2. Rick also has a chapter, “7 Facts about the Brain That Incline the Mind to Joy,” in Measuring the
Immeasurable – which is chock full of essays from luminaries like James Austin, MD, Larry Dossey, MD,
Daniel Goleman, PhD., Candace Pert, PhD, Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, Dan Siegel, MD, Charles Tart, PhD, and
Cassandra Vieten, PhD. Check it out at http://www.amazon.com/Measuring-Immeasurable-Scientific-CaseSpirituality/dp/1591796547.
3. At Spirit Rock, in 2009, these daylongs with Rick Hanson and Rick Mendius are scheduled:
• Equanimity, on Sunday, May 17. Equanimity is the key to freedom from emotional reactions, and to
cutting the chain of craving and clinging that leads to suffering. This workshop will also address the
neuropsychology of difficult emotions, as well as trauma, and neurologically-informed methods for dealing
with those.
• The Neurodharma of Love, on Saturday, May 23. The emphasis will be on relationships in general and
love in the broadest sense, integrating deep teachings on compassion and lovingkindness with a clear-eyed
understanding of how we evolved to be caring toward “us” and often wary and aggressive toward “them.”
continued on next page...
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 12
offerings continued...
• Resting in Emptiness: The Evolution of Awareness and the Transcendence of the Self, on Saturday,
November 7. This workshop will address the thorny and fundamental question of . . . “me, myself, and I.”
The self – with its tendencies to grasp after possessions and take things personally – is perhaps the premier
engine of suffering. We’ll explore the evolution of the apparent self in the animal kingdom, and the ways
in which the self is real and is also not real at all, coming to rest more and more in the underlying spacious
awareness in which self appears and disappears.
• The Hard Things That Open the Mind and Heart: Practicing with Difficult Conditions, led with
James Baraz, on Sunday, December 13. This is for people grappling with difficult conditions – both internal
and external – and for caregivers and friends who support those individuals. These include challenges with
the body, mind, and life circumstances. We’ll cover Buddhist perspectives and practices for difficult conditions;
lovingkindness for oneself and for any being who suffers; brain-savvy ways to strengthen your capacity to be
with the hard stuff; and methods from the intersection of the dharma and neuroscience for lifting mood and
cultivating joy.
4. Also at Spirit Rock, Fred Luskin, Ph.D. and Rick Hanson, Ph.D. will offer a daylong benefit on Sunday,
August 23 on “Forgiveness and Assertiveness.” These two subjects, which are often seen as at odds
with each other, actually support each other. This workshop will cover how we form grievances, healthy
forgiveness, and healthy assertiveness. Dr. Luskin is a world-renowned expert on forgiveness, and we will get
into the nitty-gritty of how to work through difficult issues with others.
Also in 2009, there are these additional offerings:
5. At the Awakening to Mindfulness conference in San Diego, April 2 – 4, the presenters include Marsha
Linehan, Tara Brach, Steven Hayes, Jack Kornfield, and Rick Hanson. 18 continuing education credits are
available, and it should be an incredible program. Rick will be presenting two workshops on Friday, April
3: “The Self-Transforming Brain” and “Taking in the Good.” See www.facesconferences.com for more
information.
6. At the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, in Barre, MA, on, April 11, Drs. Hanson and Mendius will be
offering “Neuro-Dharma: Mindfulness and the Shaping of the Brain.” See http://bcbs.dharma.org/Pages/
course_detail.lasso?-KeyValue=58&-Token.Action=&image=1 for more information.
7. At Kripalu Center, in Massachusetts, April 12 – 14, Drs. Hanson and Mendius are teaching a workshop on
“The Intimate Brain: Exploring the Neural Circuits of Happiness, Love, and Non-Dual Awareness.” See www.
kripalu.org/program/view/IB91/the_intimate_brain_exploring_the_neural_circuits for more information.
8. At New York Insight Meditation Center, on April 19, Rick Hanson will be presenting “The Neurodharma
of Love.” See http://nyimc.org/index.php/site/eventcalendar for more information.
9. At James Baraz’s wonderful Awakening Joy course, April 21 and 22, Rick will be a guest speaker. His
subject will be how the brain constructs suffering in order to help you survive – and how understanding the
mechanisms of that process suggests ways to suffer less.
10. At the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, on June 13, Rick Hanson and Tara Brach will
present “The Neurodharma of Love.” See www.imcw.org/non-residential-retreats for more information.
11. At the 15th Annual Counseling Skills Conference in Las Vegas, September 11, Rick will offer a keynote
address on “The Science of Mindfulness.”
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 13
12. With the Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community in Nevada, Rick will be leading a two day
workshop September 12 and 13 on using brain-savvy methods to steady the mind, quiet it, bring it to
singleness, and concentrate it, following the road map of the Buddha. See www.nevadadharma.net/zephyr.
html for more information.
13. Through R. Cassidy Seminars, Rick will be teaching continuing education workshops to mental health
professionals in Los Angeles and San Diego (September 25 & 26), in Portland and Seattle (November 13 &
14). The workshops will focus on translating neuroscience research, informed by contemplative practice, into
tools and skills that therapists can offer their clients. See www.ceuregistration.com for more information.
14. At the University of East London, the conference on Mindfulness and Well-Being: From Spirituality
to Cognitive Neuroscience will be held on November 20 and 21. Rick will be giving several talks and a
workshop. Contact Dr. Patrizia Collard at [email protected] for more information.
The Wellspring Institute for
Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom
The Institute is a 501c3 non-profit corporation, and it publishes the Wise Brain Bulletin. The Wellspring Institute gathers, organizes, and freely offers information and methods – supported by brain science and the contemplative disciplines – for greater happiness, love, effectiveness, and wisdom. For more information about the
Institute, please go to www.WiseBrain.org.
Fare Well
~ May you and all beings be happy, loving, and wise ~
Wise Brain Bulletin (3.3) • 3/09 • page 14